Naxi music? Or classical

  Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
Saturday, June 13, 2009

A new album of classical Chinese newly composed music which is somehow related to Naxi in Lijiang, though composed by a Chinese now resident in the USA:


A colorful
collection of contemporary Chinese classical music written for Western
symphony orchestra, this CD from the defunct HK-based HUGO Records
covers a wide stylistic range from the neo-Romantic tone poem "The Northern Forest" by Zhang Chien-Yi and the folkloristic, occasionally brutal "Memorabilia from Mount Awa" by Liu Yuan to the modernistic sounds of Zhu Jian-Er (A Wonder of Naxi) and Chen Yi (Duo Ye No.2).
Of these composers, Chen Yi is the best-known in the West - she lives
in the US and has had many commissions to her credit. Zhu Jian-Er is
one of Mainland China's most important composers, there are e.g. two
CDs of his works on the Marco Polo label released in the West. All
performances are more than competent, and the sound, as usual with
Hugo, very good indeed.

Enjoy - and seed!!!



Hong Kong Sinfonietta
Tsung Yeh (conductor)

1. LIU Yuan: Symphonic Rhapsody "Memorabilia From Mt. Awa" - Andante maestoso
2. LIU Yuan: Symphonc Rhapsody "Memorabilia From Mt. Awa" - Allaegro con brio
3. LIU Yuan: Symphonc Rhapsody "Memorabilia From Mt. Awa" - Adagissimo
4. LIU Yuan: Symphonc Rhapsody "Memorabilia From Mt. Awa" - Allegro asai
5. LIU Yuan: Symphonc Rhapsody "Memorabilia From Mt. Awa" - Largo
6. ZHU Jian-er: Tone Poem "A Wonder of Naxi" - Water Dropping In Brass Basin
7. ZHU Jian-er: Tone Poem "A Wonder of Naxi" - Bees Crossing the River
8. ZHU Jian-er: Tone Poem "A Wonder of Naxi" - Heart To Heart Talking Between Mother and Daughter
9. ZHU Jian-er: Tone Poem "A Wonder of Naxi" - The Red-deer Hunting
10. ZHANG Chien-yi: Tone Poem "Northern Forest"
11. CHEN Yi: "Duo Ye" No. 2

"Recipient
of the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters (2001-04), Chen Yi* has served as the Lorena
Searcey Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor in Music
Composition at the Conservatory of the University of Missouri-Kansas
City since 1998. Prior to her current appointment, Chen served on the
composition faculty of Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore (1996-98) and as Composer-in-Residence with the Women’s
Philharmonic, Chanticleer, and Aptos Creative Arts Center in San
Francisco (1993-96), supported by Meet The Composer’s New Residencies
Program. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 2005.

Born April 4, 1953, in Guangzhou, China, into a family
of doctors with a strong interest in classical music, Chen Yi started
studying violin and piano at age three with Zheng Rihua and Li Suxin,
and music theory with Zheng Zhong. Dr. Chen has received music degrees
from the Beijing Central Conservatory (BA and MA) and Columbia
University in the City of New York (DMA). Dr. Chen’s major composition
teachers included Professors Chou Wen-chung, Mario Davidovsky, Wu
Zu-qiang and Alexander Goehr.

Chen Yi was the first woman to
receive a master’s degree in composition in China in June, 1986, when
she presented a full evening concert of her orchestral works in
Beijing. She was also the first woman to present a full evening
multimedia orchestral concert in the US (for orchestra, choir, Chinese
traditional instrumental soloists, dancers, and image projection – the
Chinese Myths Cantata), in May, 1996, with three sold out performances
in San Francisco. In 2001, she was invited by the China National
Symphony Orchestra and Chorus to give an evening-length concert of her
orchestral and choral works in Beijing. On May 29, 2008, there is
another evening concert of her more recent orchestral works presented
by the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing. By combining
Chinese and Western traditions, Chen Yi transcends cultural and musical
boundaries, and serves as an ambassador for the arts, creating music
that reaches a wide range of audiences and inspires people of different
cultural backgrounds.

Dr. Chen has received fellowships from the
Guggenheim Foundation (1996) and the National Endowment for the Arts
(1994), as well as the Lieberson Award from the American Academy of
Arts and Letters (1996). Other honors include first prize in the
Chinese National Composition Competition (1985), the Lili Boulanger
Award from the National Women Composers Resource Center (1993), New
York University’s Sorel Medal (1996), the CalArts/Alpert Award (1997),
a Grammy Award (1999), the University of Texas Eddie Medora King
Composition Prize (1999), the Adventurous Programming and Concert Music
awards from ASCAP (1999 and 2001, respectively), the Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center’s Elise Stoeger Award (2002), the Edgar Snow
Memorial Fund’s Friendship Ambassador Award (2002), an honorary
doctorate from Lawrence University (2002), and the Kauffman Award in
Artistry/Scholarship from the UMKC Conservatory (2006).

Dr. Chen
has received major commissions from the Koussevitzky, Fromm, Ford,
Rockefeller, and Roche foundations, the National Endowment for the
Arts, Chamber Music America, Meet The Composer, the Creative Work Fund,
the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Mary Cary Trust, NYSCA, Carnegie
Hall, New Heritage Music Foundation, Friends of Dresden Music
Foundation, the American Guild of Organists, the Barlow Endowment for
Music Composition, the Eastman School, Ithaca College, Bradley
University, Miami University, Chorus America, and the 6th World
Symposium on Choral Music. Commissioning ensembles and soloists include
the Lucerne Music Festival for the Cleveland Orchestra, Mira Wang along
with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the New York Philharmonic
Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the BBC Proms Festival for
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, Yo-Yo Ma and the
Pacific Symphony, Raschèr Saxophone Quartet and the Stuttgart Chamber
Orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin, Emanuel Ax, Michala Petri, Evelyn Glennie
and the Singapore Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Women’s
Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Wind
Symphony, Philadelphia Classical Symphony, the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, New Music
Consort, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Chanticleer, KITKA,
San Francisco Citywinds, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Music From
China, the Ying Quartet, the Elements Quartet, the Shanghai Quartet,
the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra, the HK Chinese Orchestra, Boston
Musica Viva, Network For New Music, Opus 21, Chicago a cappella, KC
Chorale, Peninsula Women’s Chorus, and many others. Dr. Chen’s music is
performed worldwide and published by Theodore Presser Company. Her
works have been recorded on the New Albion (1997), CRI/NewWorld
(1999/2007), Teldec (1997, 1999 with Grammy, 2003), Nimbus (1993,
2000), Cala (1995), Avant (1998), Atma (1999), Hugo (2000), Angel
(2001), Bis (2002-4), Albany (2004-6), Cavalli (2004), Centaur
(2004-5), Quartz (2006), and China Record Corporation (1986, 1990)
labels. Dr. Chen’s most recent CD releases include recordings of a
cello concerto, Eleanor’s Gift [Troy648], the Golden Flute concerto
[KIC7566], a string quartet, At the Kansas City Chinese New Year
Concert [QTZ2055], and a third album of orchestral works titled
Momentum [Bis1352].

Premieres from 2007 and 2008 include Three
Bagatelles from China West (2007, for flute and piano), Looking at the
Sea (2007, for women’s chorus), China West Suite (2007, for 2 pianos),
a song cycle, From the Path of Beauty, for Chanticleer and the Shanghai
Quartet (2008), The Ancient Chinese Beauty, a recorder concerto for
Michala Petri, (2008), Suite From China West, a wind ensemble work for
the Metropolitan Wind Symphony (2008), Tunes from My Home for The
Newstead Trio (2008), an orchestral work Rhyme of Fire (formerly titled
Olympic Fire) for the Royal Philharmonic at the BBC Proms (2008), a
woodwind quintet for Antara Winds, a double concerto for oboe and sheng
and the China National Symphony (2008), and an overture for the new
China National Theatre (2009 New Year).

Premiere works in 2009
include a chamber orchestra work for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, a
student orchestra work for Omaha Area Youth Symphony, a marimba solo
work for Nancy Zeltsman, a duet for the Music Teachers’ Association of
CA, and new wind ensemble works for both the MAC Band Director's
Association and the NWECG.

Recent years have seen the world
premieres of numerous other works, including the cello concerto,
Ballad, Dance and Fantasy (written for Yo-Yo Ma); Symphony No. 3; Tu,
for symphonic wind ensemble (adapted from the original version for full
orchestra); Celebration (for orchestra); Spring in Dresden, a violin
concerto written for Mira Wang; Si Ji (Four Seasons), a finalist for
the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Music, product of the prestigious second
Roche Commission and the subject of a book published by Roche (View the
book on Chen Yi’s Si Ji here!); The Han Figurines (sextet); Tibetan
Tunes (piano trio); Ji-Dong-Nuo, for solo piano, commissioned by
Carnegie Hall for Emanuel Ax; Ancient Dances (pipa and percussion duet
written for Wu Man); and The Ancient Beauty, for Chinese instruments
and string orchestra, written for Music From China.

Chen Yi is
in high demand as a lecturer at composition workshops and at concerts
of her music throughout the world. She was appointed by the China
Ministry of Education to the prestigious three-year Changjiang Scholar
Visiting Professorship at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music in
2006, and presently serves on the boards, advisory councils or juries
of Meet The Composer, Chamber Music America, the Fromm Music Foundation
at Harvard University, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, American
Composers Orchestra, the American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the International
Alliance of Women in Music, as well as numerous other music
organizations."

"Zhu Jianer (Chinese: 朱践耳; pinyin: Zhū Jiàněr; b. Tianjin, China, 1922) is a prominent Chinese composer.

He
was born in Tianjin and brought up in Shanghai, and lived in Jing
County, Anhui, China. He began composing in 1940 and pursued
composition studies at the Moscow Conservatory in 1955. He is a
professor at the Shanghai Conservatory. He has composed for both
Western and Chinese instruments and his works have been performed
around the world. In 2000 he was commissioned by Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road
Project to compose Silk Road Reverie.

His 1950 revolutionary
work Days of Emancipation (翻身的日子, Fānshēn de Rìzi; for banhu and
Chinese orchestra) is well known in the West from its appearance on the
1981 CBS Masterworks compilation Phases of the Moon: Traditional
Chinese Music."
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